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The Anthropocene
An Introduction to the Anthropocene The Anthropocene has emerged as a powerful term in both the Sciences and the Humanities for understanding the long-term human impact on the Earth through the notion of a potential new geological epoch : - Cristofaro and Cordle 1 : According to Paul J. Crutzen the Anthropocene can be dated back to, as early as, the late 18th century when carbon dioxide and methane were discovered in polar ice (23). Interestingly, the Anthropocene has inspired its very own branch of literature. The literature of the Anthropocene challenges narrative trajectories that are usually found in other literary genres. Instead of operating on a human scale, temporally, spatially, and existentially, the Anthropocene asks the reader to think beyond the human - however difficult that may be. The Anthropocene is an ambiguous term. On the one hand, it focuses on human dominance and the ability to alter and influence our natural surroundings. However, on the other hand, it also deals with human impotence and the realization that we have no control over the very possible end of humanity - a fate which we have brought upon ourselves (Cristofaro and Corde 1). Vital Materialism Environmentalism, invented in the 1970s, is making a comeback. However, as Jane Bennett asks, would a shift from environmentalism to what is called vital materialism "enhance the prospects for a more sustainability-oriented public?" (Bennett 111). Vital materialism encompasses the idea that you cannot separate the human from the non-human. Instead of calling for the protection and wise management of our environment (as environmentalism does) Vital Materialism suggests rather that we ought to consider ourselves a part of our surroundings on a flat ontological plane (Bennett 111). In other words, vital materialism levels the relations between humans and non-humans and argues that the human is not as superior and separated from non-humans as previously perceived (Bennett 112). Vital Materialism and Its Connection to the Anthropocene Much like the Anthropocene, Vital Materialism does away with the dualism of the Enlightenment. For example, whereas the dualism of the Enlightenment views humans subjects as separate and superior to everything non-human, vital materialism and Anthropocenic literature move away from this view of the human as special. An example of Anthropocenic literature is Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation from 2014. In Vandermeer's work, he writes: "Then the dolphins breached ... Then something more wrenching occurred. as they slid by, the nearest one rolled slightly to the side, and it stared at me with an eye that did not, in that brief flash, resemble a dolphin eye to me. it was painfully human, almost familiar" (Vandermeer 97) and "The tower breathed, ''and the walls when I went to touch them carried the echo of a heartbeat... and they were not made of stone but of ''living tissue ... We were descending into an organism" (Vandermeer 41) These examples clearly exemplify this leveling of the ontological plane and remove the distinction between human and non-human, which characterizes Vital Materialism. Works Cited Diletta De Christofaro & Daniel Cordle: “Introduction: ‘The Literature of the Anthropocene’, C21 Literature 6 (2018) Jane Bennett: ”Vitality and Self-Interest”, from Vibrant Matter – a Political Ecology of Things, Duke University Press 2010 Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation (2014) Paul Crutzen: “Geology of Mankind”, Nature 415 (2002)